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Art Gallery

The Founder’s Hall Art Gallery displays several art exhibits throughout the school year. Artists working with different media are invited to exhibit their work for 4-6 weeks. In December and May the gallery showcases student work from the previous semester.

The gallery is open Monday-Thursday from 7:30:a.m. to 10:30 p.m., Fridays until 4:30 p.m. . For more information contact Berel Lutsky, Associate Professor of Art, at 920-683-4735 or by e-mail berel.lutsky@uwc.edu

Currently on view -

Student Work from Spring Semester -May 8-July 4

Printmaking, Life Drawing, 3D Design, Digital Imaging & Design

Upcoming Exhibits

Past Exhibits

Katie Ries "Land Boots" - April 6 - May 8

I am interested in the cultural limits of what is possible and reasonable for modern people who want to be good land stewards or to live “sustainably.” With those limits in mind I set out to produce a pair of fashion boots made in the most sustainable manner possible or reasonable. At a minimum made with: non-toxic materials, and fair labor, and such that I could repair them as they wore down. I wanted to look like the stylish women I saw, but without the exploitative and oppressive means of production required for cheap fast fashion boots. I hoped these boots would circumvent the systems of “fast fashion” but still pass stylishly in contemporary culture. Now moved from theory to drawing to object, the boots do not pass. Instead they assert the specific beauty of the Other.

A graduate of UT Knoxville (MFA) and Colorado College (BA) Katie Ries lives and works in Northeastern Wisconsin where she is an Assistant Professor of Art at St. Norbert College. Ries creates drawings, prints, costumes, and objects to raise and answer humorous questions about land, labor, and community. Her work has been shown nationally and internationally and can be found in public and private collections throughout the US. Ries is the founder of the Land Scouts, a scouting program promoting awareness of land and ecology. You can see more of her work at her website: whoshareswins.com

Workshops in the Gallery for "Land Boots"

#1 Land Boots. April 14, 5 pm, Founders Hall Gallery

Join the artist, Katie Ries, learning more about the project and in making your own paper boot prototypes. No cost to attend and all materials will be provided. Please sign up beforehand by emailing berel.lutsky@uwc.edu. Limit 12 people.

#2 Land Boots. April 22, 5 pm, Founders Hall Gallery

Join artists Jill and James Iverson, of Manitowoc's own Erik James Leatherwerks, to explore the possibilities of working with leather. The Iversons are a husband and wife team with decades of experience in leather design and crafting. Learn about the difference between full grain leather and the many imposters which hide under the names "authentic" or "genuine" leather. For the first six people who sign up this will be a hands on workshop. More people may attend to learn by observing. All tools will be supplied. Old clothes are a good idea, just in case. Hands on work will be limited to people 12 yrs of age or older. Please sign up beforehand by emailing berel.lutsky@uwc.edu.

Pete Railand "When the Fires and Dreams are One ....."March 6 - April 3

‪The show "when the fires and dreams are one" assembled for UW Manitowoc, takes a look at Wisconsin now. Simultaneously inspired by the WI Uprising, and disheartened by recall failures, Act 10, frac sand mining, wolf hunts, future oil pipe lines, water issues, mine proposals, disinvestment in renewable energy, the list goes on... this show is an attempt to make sense of where our future is going. Part audience interactive, part large scale print and related ephemera, "when the fires and dreamers are one" has no answers, only grey areas.

Pete Railand is an artist, printmaker, educator, bike rider, self-taught musician and full time dad. Born in Milwaukee WI; raised in the north woods of Wisconsin in a town with one stoplight, Pete spent his late teens, 20's and early 30's playing music and traveling/touring the underground D.I.Y. punk circuit, making long lasting connections across the United States and Europe. Having lived in Portland, Oakland, New York, New Mexico and Minnesota he returned to Milwaukee after a 16 year absence. Pete is a member of Justseeds Artists’ Cooperative, a decentralized network of 24 artists committed to making print and design work that reflects a radical social, environmental, and political stance. Justseeds has members working from the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. Working with Justseeds, Pete's installation and graphic work has been shown in more places than he is even aware of. He received a B.S. and a Masters of Education from Portland State University, and an Masters of Fine Arts from The University of New Mexico. Pete teaches at UW Waukesha. Pete also participated in Really BIGPRINTS!! this past summer.

Prints from "24 Hours of Art -2015"

Feb. 21 - March 6, 2015 -

Matthew Bindert, Jan. 30 - Feb. 20, 2015

Matthew J. Bindert is one of Minneapolis Minnesota’s most promising artists. His Work primarily consists of Woodblock prints on canvas, which he then reworks by incorporating Serigraphy and Painting. His Work is as large as four by twelve feet and draws both from his travel and volunteer work overseas as well as everyday occurrences. Matthew executes each image from start to finish and sees woodblock printing as a means to a direct connection with the transcendent power of nature by working with such a natural medium. His images are massive, bold, and demonstrate an innovative and expressive approach to the Fine Art of woodblock printing. Matthew’s work is intended to promote social awareness, question popular culture, and inspire viewers to travel overseas and expand their influences. His work has been included in the Minnesota National Print Biennial, The Minnesota Museum of American Art’s Biennial, and was selected for the International Print Center New York’s New Prints Program “selected by Kiki Smith.” He has received many prestigious awards, completed an artist residency at Highpoint Center for Printmaking in Minneapolis, and earned a Master of Fine Arts from UW-Madison in Printmaking.

I was raised in a family that fostered many children from broken and abusive homes, and exposed very early in life to a world that gave me a heightened sense of awareness. I became more aware of the inequality, injustice, and harsh realities of life during my travel and volunteer work overseas and in my everyday experiences. I derive intense emotion from these observations and experiences; this emotion is evident in the aggressive and intense carving of my woodcut’s that range in scales of three by four feet to four by twelve feet. The resulting images are both representational and abstracted while revolving around the interconnected issues engendered by globalization; issues such as poverty, war, consumerism, exploitation, and the conservation of nature and culture. I view woodblock printing as a means to a direct connection and collaboration with nature by working with such a natural medium. My work is intended to promote social awareness, question popular culture, and inspire viewers to travel overseas and expand their influences. I strongly believe that it’s important for people to try to understand other cultures and environments so that they can better understand the diverse and changing communities around them.

This body of work revolves around issues engendered by the dramatic impact that globalization and consumerism has had on our culture and environment. It is an expressive and conceptual response to globalizations dual nature of being a force for good and extreme destruction at the same time. The work represents the complex social, religious, economic, environmental, and political interdependence of the world today. I believe that issues like poverty, war, exploitation, and the conservation of the environment and culture need to be addressed with an interconnected approach to finding solutions. DNA charting, textiles, and modern corporate structures are just some elements I have drawn from these areas of influence that inspired the abstract patterns that I use as symbols. I incorporate woodblock printing, serigraphy, and painting in the process of creating mixed media works on canvas that are predominately four by eight feet in scale. It is a repetitious and intuitive process that involves an enormous amount of carving, printing, and painting.

Work from the fall studio classes will be on display in the gallery and in the south hallway of Founders Hall.

image on the poster is by Carolyn Huske

"Radial Parking Lot"

Don Krumpos -Wondertoonel Artificialis and other memorabilia

Last fall I returned to my birthplace and ancestral grounds in Northeast Wisconsin after five years in Minneapolis studying design. Since then, I have spent much time revisiting the pastoral landscapes of my boyhood adventures, and experiencing both a sense of familiarity and temporal dissonance, as the sights and smells changed with each passing micro-season. With sentimentality and the ache of nostalgia, I have had the time to carefully observe and recollect the ruins of my childhood, while discovering an adulthood wonder of enchantment of the creeks, forests and farmlands with now un-innocent eyes.

I attempt to enter a new period of suspension of disbelief as I envision an imaginary world that is only perceived by those with strong enough powers of observation. In this age of distraction and pervasiveness of images, my work is an elegy to lament the loss of “being able to go back”.

Rudy Rotter "Family," Oct. 6 - Nov. 6

This is the fourth in a series of yearly exhibits of Rudy Rotter’s art work in the Founders Hall Gallery at UW Manitowoc. The work chosen for this year’s show all have family as the subject, and reflect Rotter’s well cultivated sense of whimsy and willingness to address archetypical forms in uncommon ways. The work engages the visual evocation of family in different ways, some are traditional representations of the nuclear family, and mothers with children, and others are very “out there”. Rotter’s families can take the forms of aliens, become stained glass windows, mingle with prairie dogs, or hide in the wallpaper foliage.

Selected Work From Really BIG PRINTS!!

A selection from the prints made this summer will be in the gallery and the hallway leading to the green house. All of the prints displayed are available for "adoption" for details contact Prof. Lutsky. All of the prints created during the outdoor printmaking event held at UW-Manitowoc were exhibited at the Rahr-West Art Museum in August. They will be at the Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum beginning on Sept. 5 through the Wayzgoose event in early November with a closing reception on November 22.

The Meeting

April 18 - May 12

"Admission is free, pay at the door"

"Pull up a chair, and sit on the floor"

An installation of work from Art 112 - 3D Design

Chairs, Masks and Hands, all made in response to projects assigned by Brian Carlson to his in Art 112 - 3D Design class, are arranged around an altered book (another assignment,) to set the stage for a very important meeting. The subject of which may very well be the very future of liberal arts education. The chairs may all be occupied - please sit carefully, raise your hand to speak, and be sure to talk amongst yourselves.

Mrs. Pemmett's Steampunk Emporium

March 3 - April 4

In 2012 I discovered Steam Punk, a sort of Neo-Victorian Sci-Fi. As a genre it mixed several of my favorite things, Victorian aesthetic, gadgetry, and the flexibility to use many mediums to create interesting objects from everyday things. It also interests me because of its capacity for rebelling against those everyday objects that are made cheaply and sold by the millions. It celebrates the way everyday items USED to be made, like clocks that actually tick, steam engines that moved us into new eras and dirigibles as legitimate forms of transportation. It romanticizes the 19th century and creates a world that would have been had the technology of today been steam powered.

The goal of this show is to make the viewer an intimate part of the art. Studies have shown the people look at a piece of artwork for approximately 7 seconds before moving on to the next piece. This is rather annoying when you have put your heart and soul into a creation and perhaps spent months making it. Most art exhibits don’t allow touching, but this show encourages it and makes the viewer part of the work. There’s a spinning Kraken, a viewer that shows a movie designed to hypnotize, a bird that bounces, and scientific items re-thought as well as other interactive work. There are also objects that are just to look at and some photography.

Many of the ideas for this work were inspired by simple children’s toys and scientific gadgets. Things like Ferro-Fluid (an automotive lubricant), magnets. and springs take on different uses within the artwork. And old clocks remade into more modern works are a great way to rejuvenate these beautifully made objects and give them a new life. It is recommended that you find out their worth, before you remake them.

Brian Carlson "Aparecido!"

Between the years 1976 and 1983 approximately 30,000 Argentinian citizens were abducted, taken to secret detention centers, tortured and murdered in a systematic campaign of genocide. The military junta then in power, performed this action with impunity, brazenly arresting whomever they chose and imprisoning them without trial or Habeus Corpus. Prisoners were sadistically tortured as a form of terror, and finally the attempt was made to disappear them, either by burial after execution in mass graves or by dropping them, drugged but alive, from planes into the sea. No one was safe. Tortured victims often named anyone they could think of to stop the pain. Arrests became almost arbitrary, thereby enhancing the terror. Ironically, cynically, the action was billed as a "War Against Terror."

"My memorial is a commitment to paint portraits of any of the victims of whom I can obtain a photograph. Online, about 1200 photos are accessible on the Wall of Memory site in Argentina. As awareness grows of this project, survivors are contacting me with photos asking me to include their brother, their lover, their friend who was disappeared in the installation. I am honored to do so.

My intention in creating Aparecidos, is first to honor the beautiful people who's human rights were trampled with complete disdain, who's final months or days in life were spent in unimaginable levels of suffering and terror, and who were subjected to a state wide campaign to "disappear" them entirely. Referred to in Argentina as the "Desparecidos," the Disappeared, in titling my work "Aparecidos," I hope to symbolically reappear them, and to help with the effort to re-member them. Secondly, as a long time educator in the arts, I intend the work to be educational...to disseminate information about Argentina's specific genocide but to call attention to current genocidal campaigns as well. Finally I hope that "Aparecidos" is a warning. The dynamic that occurred in Argentina was not isolated. It has happened before and has happened since. Understanding the dynamic, in all the guises it may appear, is vital toward the goal of "Nunca Mas," (never more), heralded by contemporary Argentines."

The exhibit in the gallery features Carlson's latest set of portraits, a large group portait of a "disappeared" family, a projected animation, and explanatory texts. Aparecidos! will be discussed by Carlson, and Prof. Berel Lutsky at the UW-Manitowoc Faculty Colluquium on Friday, Nov. 22 at 3:30 in H102.